Maker of “failed states” fails ─ political economics expert Edward Herman

U.S. global aggression neglects home: destroyer is being destroyed from Edward Herman's article “Manufacturing Failed States”

Excerpt, minor edit, ending one-sentence comment by Carolyn Bennett

Failed states manufacturer

The United States has been a “manufacturer of failed states for a long time, as in the cases of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and those Indochinese  states (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) where ‘killing was so good.’” Edward Herman writes. “But we have seen a dramatic resurgence in more recent times.…[T]here has been a fresh stream of failed states brought about by U.S. and NATO ‘humanitarian intervention’ and regime change, carried out more aggressively in the wake of the death of the Soviet Union (and thus the end of an important if limited force of containment’).

The Soviet Union as threat to the United States and allies, Herman notes in another context, was fiction: “ideology” and “propaganda.”

Chemical killing
U.S. over Vietnam

In reality the Soviet Union was always far less powerful than the United States, had weaker and less reliable allies, and was essentially on the defensive from 1945 till its demise in 1991. The Soviet Union was an obstruction to U.S. expansion, with sufficient military power to constitute a modest containing force, but it also served U.S. propaganda as an alleged expansionist threat.

The United States, on the other hand, was aggressively on the march outward from 1945, with the steady spread of military bases across the globe, numerous interventions, large and small, on all continents, engaged in building the first truly global empire.

William Jefferson Clinton  - Barack Obama: “Humanitarian intervention in Yugoslavia has been a model, with Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo turned into failed states, with several other weaklings broken out, all of them Western clients or supplicants, plus a huge U.S. military base in Kosovo, replacing one formerly independent social democratic state. …

 

“…Manufactured failures have often had common features that show them to be a product of imperial policy and the projection of imperial power. 

• “One frequent feature is the rise and/or recognition of ethnic group rebels who claim victimhood, fight their government with terroristic acts, sometimes designed to provoke a violent government response, and who regularly appeal to the imperial powers to come to their aid. 

• “Sometimes foreign mercenaries are imported to aid the rebels, and both the indigenous rebels and mercenaries are often armed, trained and given logistical support by the imperial powers. 

• “The imperial powers encourage these rebel efforts as they find them useful to justify destabilizing, bombing, and eventually overthrowing the target regime. 

This process was evident throughout the period of the dismantlement of Yugoslavia and creation of the resultant set of failed states.…[And] …this demonstration of the merits of imperial intervention set the stage for further failed-state manufacturing efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Libya, with a similar program well advanced today in Syria and one obviously in process for some years in the Free World’s treatment of a threatening Iran ─ following its happy relationship with the Western-imposed Shah dictatorship.”

Note: The United States’ Shah of Iran was the oldest son of Reza Shah Pahlavi, an army officer who became the ruler of Iran and founder of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925). Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (b. October 26, 1919, Tehran, Iran, d. July 27, 1980, Cairo, Egypt) was Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979.

“… During the Vietnam War, a sign over one of the U.S. army bases read ‘Killing Is Our Business, and Business Is Good.’ …It was a very good business in Vietnam (and Cambodia, Laos, and Korea as well), the number of civilian deaths running into the millions. And it has been quite respectable in the years after Vietnam.

“The killings have been carried out both directly and via proxies on every continent, as U.S. ‘national security’ has required bases, garrisons, assassinations, invasions, bombing wars, and the sponsorship of killer regimes, real terror networks, and programs everywhere in response to terrorist threats and challenges to the ‘pitiful giant.’ [Herman quotes Jan Knippers Black]:

‘National security’ is a wonderfully elastic concept, expanding in accord with ‘what a nation, class or institution…thinks it should have,’ with the result that it is those ‘whose wealth and power would appear to make them most secure who are, in fact, most paranoid, and who, by their frenetic attempts to ensure their security, bring on their own destruction.’

Herman defines Failed State as

 …One that has been crushed militarily or rendered unmanageable by political and/or economic destabilization and a resultant chaos and is unable (or is not permitted) for long periods to recover and take care of its citizens’ needs.

USA Failed, Failing State

“There is a good case to be made that the United States itself is a failed or failing state,” Herman writes.

“It obviously has not been crushed militarily by any foreign power, but its underlying population has been hugely damaged by its own permanent war system. In this case the military elite, with its contractor, banker, political, media and intellectual allies has

…greatly enlarged poverty and mass distress, shriveled the public services, and impoverished the country, making it impossible for the hamstrung and compromised leadership to properly service its ordinary citizens, despite steadily rising per capita productivity and GDP.

The surpluses are drained into the war system and the consumption and ownership of a small minority, who, … are aggressively striving to go beyond mere surplus monopolization to transfers from the incomes, wealth and public claims of the great (and struggling) majority.

“As a failed state as well as in other ways the United States of America is surely an exceptional nation!” 

Try swallowing that without choking.

Sources and notes

“Manufacturing Failed States” (MADE BY THE USA) by Edward S. Herman, VOLTAIRE NETWORK September 23, 2012, http://www.voltairenet.org/article175898.html

“‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P): An Instrument of Aggression” by Edward S. Herman, November 9, 2013 VOLTAIRE NETWORK, http://www.voltairenet.org/article180927.html

Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. His books include Corporate Control, Corporate Power (1981); The Real Terror Network (1982); Manufacturing Consent (2002); and The Political Economy of Human Rights (co-author 1979),

http://www.voltairenet.org/article175898.html

Professor Jan Knippers Black, Ph.D., Monterey Institute of International Studies: A Graduate School of Middlebury College; expert in Human rights, international and comparative politics of the Western Hemisphere, international and grassroots development, women´s rights and roles, globalization

Professor Jan Knippers Black, according to one biographical note, “has had a passion for freedom, fairness and social justice ever since she traveled to Chile as part of the very first class of Peace Corps Volunteers in 1962.”

Her books include The Politics of Human Rights Protection (2009, pbk 2010), and Latin America, Its Problems and Its Promise, 5th ed, rev (2010).  United States Penetration of Brazil (1977, Portuguese edition published by Brazil’s Editora Massangana, Fundacao Joaquim Nabuco, 2010); Sentinels of Empire: The United States and Latin American Militarism (1986); Development in Theory and Practice: Paradigms and Paradoxes, 2nd ed, rev (1999); and Inequity in the Global Village: Recycled Rhetoric and Disposable People (1999).  Dr. Black has edited and co-authored three books, co-authored 14 more, and published more than 200 chapters or articles in reference books, anthologies, journals, magazines and newspapers.

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Rape patriarchy-ingrained undeterred by death penalty: Krishnan

India’s women, progressives condemn sexual violence, oppose death penalty

Excerpt, minor edit by Carolyn Bennett

Today's news: Rape-tolerant USA: 

There were 3,553 sexual assault complaints from October 2012 to June 2013, compared to 2,434 during the same period last year, according to statistics released on [yesterday] at the start of a two-day congressional panel looking into the problem [of sexual assault perpetrated in military of the United States].

The formulation of the crime of sexual assault as gender neutral makes the identity of the perpetrator/accused also gender neutral, observes women progressives of India. So we demand that the definition of perpetrator be gender-specific and limited to men. Sexual violence also targets transgender people and legal reform must address this. 

Rape, physical and sexual assault Condemned

As our protests spill over to the streets all across the country, our demands for justice are strengthened in knowing that countless others share our anger.

We assert that rape and other forms of sexual violence are not just a women’s issue but a political one that should concern every citizen.  

 In the United States

U.S. (New York) Senator Kirsten Gillibrand 

pushes for support of legislation to help 

victims of sexual assault in U.S. military 

Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

We urge that the wheels of justice turn not only to incidents such as the Delhi bus case but to the epidemic of sexual violence that threatens all of us. [On December 16, 2012, a young woman was brutally gang raped, the man accompanying her beaten severely, then both of them were stripped and dumped on a road.]

W

e need to evolve punishments that act as true deterrents to the very large number of men who commit these crimes. Our stance is not anti-punishment but against the State’s executing the death penalty reads a 2012 statement by women’s and progressive groups and individuals in India.

The fact that cases of rape have a conviction rate as low as 26 percent shows that perpetrators of sexual violence enjoy a high degree of impunity, including being freed of charges.

Silent witnesses to everyday forms of sexual assault such as leering, groping, passing comments, stalking and whistling are equally responsible for rape being embedded in our culture and hence being so prevalent today.

We therefore condemn the culture of silence and tolerance for sexual assault and the culture of valorizing this kind of violence.

We reject voices that are ready to imprison and control women and girls under the garb of ‘safety’, instead of ensuring their freedom as equal participants in society and their right to a life free of perpetual threats of sexual assault, both inside and outside their homes.

Death Opposed

O

ur vision of this justice does not include death penalty, which is neither a deterrent nor an effective or ethical response to these acts of sexual violence. We are opposed to it for the following reasons:

“Punishment” as calculated distraction

1. We recognize that every human being has a right to life.

Our rage cannot give way to what are, in no uncertain terms, new cycles of violence. We refuse to deem ‘legitimate’ any act of violence that would give the State the right to take life in our names. Justice meted by the State cannot bypass complex socio-political questions of violence against women by punishing rapists by death.

Death penalty is often used to distract attention away from the real issue – it changes nothing but becomes a tool in the hands of the State to further exert its power over its citizens.

A huge set of changes are required in the system to end the widespread and daily culture of rape.

“Punishment” as brutal non-deterrence

2. There is no evidence to suggest that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to rape.

Available data shows that there is a low rate of conviction in rape cases and a strong possibility that the death penalty would lower this conviction rate even further as it is awarded only under the ‘rarest of rare’ circumstances.

The most important factor that can act as a deterrent is the certainty of punishment, rather than the severity of its form.

“Punishment” as bigoted ‘Justice’

Reporting
Sexual Assault in
U.S. military

3. As seen in countries like the United States, men from minority communities make up a disproportionate number of death row inmates.

In the context of India, a review of crimes that warrant capital punishment reveals the discriminatory way in which such laws are selectively and arbitrarily applied to disadvantaged communities, religious and ethnic minorities.

This is a real and major concern, as the possibility of differential consequences for the same crime is injustice in itself.

Rape: Shoring up Patriarchy

4. The logic of awarding death penalty to rapists is based on the belief that rape is a fate worse than death.

Patriarchal notions of ‘honor’ lead us to believe that rape is the worst thing that can happen to a woman.

There is a need to strongly challenge this stereotype of the ‘destroyed’ woman who loses her honor and who has no place in society after she’s been sexually assaulted.

We believe that rape is tool of patriarchy, an act of violence, and has nothing to do with morality, character or behavior.

Rape: Rising in home, society

5. An overwhelming number of women are sexually assaulted by people known to them, and often include near or distant family, friends and partners.

Who will be able to face the psychological and social trauma of having reported against their … relatives?

Would marital rape (currently not recognized by law), even conceptually, ever be looked at through the same retributive prism?

 

… [7] In cases of sexual assault where the perpetrator is in a position of power (such as in cases of custodial rape or caste and communal violence), conviction is notoriously difficult.

The death penalty, for reasons that have already been mentioned, would make conviction next to impossible.

Rape: Reinforced by the State

6. The State often reserves for itself the ‘right to kill’ — through the armed forces, the paramilitary and the police.

Giving more powers to the State ─ whether arming the police and giving them the right to shoot at sight or awarding capital punishment ─ is not a viable solution to lessen the incidence of crime.

Furthermore, with death penalty at stake, the ‘guardians of the law’ will make sure that no complaints against them get registered and they will go to any length to make sure that justice does not see the light of day.  

Change demanded

Greater dignity, equality, autonomy and rights for women and girls from a society that should stop questioning and policing their actions at every step

Immediate relief: legal, medical, financial and psychological assistance and long-term rehabilitation measures provided to survivors of sexual assault.

Improved infrastructure provided to make cities safer for women, including well-lit pavements and bus stops, help lines and emergency services.

Effective registration, monitoring and regulation of transport services (whether public, private or contractual) to make them safe, accessible and available to all

Compulsory courses within the training curriculum on gender sensitization for all personnel employed and engaged by the State in its various institutions, including the police.

Mandate that police do [their] duty to ensure that public spaces are free from harassment, molestation and assault. This means that they themselves have to stop sexually assaulting women who come to make complaints. They have to register all FIRs [First Information Report or FIR is a written document prepared by police organizations in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan when they receive information about the commission of a cognizable offense: generally a complaint lodged with the police by the victim of a cognizable offense or by someone on his or her behalf, but anyone can make such a report either orally or in writing to the police.] and attend to complaints. CCTV cameras should be set up in all police stations and swift action must be taken against errant police personnel.

Immediate establishment of fast track courts for rape and other forms of sexual violence all across the country; State governments ensure priority of operation of these courts; Sentencing carried out within a six-month period.

  

Sources and notes

Text of statement condemning sexual violence and opposing death penalty: women’s and progressive groups and individuals in India, Monday, December 24, 2012, South Asia Citizens Web, http://www.sacw.net/article3458.html

Endorsed by Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA (All India Progressive Women’s Association), New Delhi and many other women and organizations

On December 16, 2012, a 23-year old woman and her friend hailed a bus at a crossing in South Delhi. In the bus, they were both brutally attacked by a group of men who claimed to be out on a ‘joy-ride’. The woman was gang raped and the man beaten up; after several hours, they were both stripped and dumped on the road. While the young woman is still in hospital, bravely battling for her life, her friend has been discharged and is helping identify the men responsible for the heinous crime.

Also:

A speech by Kavita Krishnan was also aired on KPFA Women’s Magazine November 4, 2013, http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/96812

Indian feminist activist Kavita Krishnan is secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association, a group that organizes poor women workers against feudal violence and state repression of women. The recorded speech “Women Want Freedom: Shifting the Terms of the Debate” addressing the uprising that followed the brutal rape and murder last December in India of a 23-year-old woman and led to a new type of movement against rape with broad support,  raising never before raised questions of male entitlement was given at UC Berkeley in September 2013. Her talk sponsored by the Center for South Asia Studies, Kavita Krishnan also raised questions about rape culture in India, the United States, and internationally; and the influence of capitalism and neo-liberalism in structurally supporting all rape cultures by continuing to exploit women’s labor in the home and the work place.

All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA)

Kavita Krishnan, Secretary

AIPWA Struggles FOR

Changes in sexual violence laws, to recognize and punish rape within marriage, rape using objects, gang-rape, sexual violence directed against women from dalit and backward communities, religious minorities, and on the basis of race and ethnicity; rape by police forces and Army

Women’s equal right to property, wages, and freedoms

Women’s rights to education, health, nutrition – against the Government’s withdrawal of subsidies to these areas and against privatization

33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and Assemblies

To resist patriarchal political culture in all its manifestations: including low representation of women in elections and elected bodies; the ‘panchayat pati’ syndrome; and sexist abuse of women in politics; and against patriarchal pronouncements by political leaders

Democratization of the women’s commissions in States and the Centre, to ensure that they are functional, and headed and constituted by women's movement activists rather than political appointees

Rights and dignity of physically and mentally challenged women

In support of women’s struggles against corporate land grab, nuclear power projects, against slum eviction, for civic amenities, and other people's movements

…For an end to trafficking; for protection of sex workers from exploitation and violence; social services for sex workers and their dependants; as well as provision of secure, dignified and remunerative employment for women, so that women are not forced to opt for sex work due to poverty and unemployment

…For rights, dignity, and protection for homosexuals, Hijras [In South Asia a group comprising a third gender, neither female nor male], transsexuals and sexual minorities

AIPWA Struggles AGAINST

All kinds of violence on women

Sex-selective abortions

‘Honor’ crimes and killings, against diktats by khap panchayats and moral policing in the name of religion or culture, to uphold women's unqualified right to take independent decisions about their own lives, including relationships, marriage, education, work, clothes or lifestyle

Sexual harassment at the workplace, demanding committees to enquire into complaints against sexual harassment at all workplaces – be they government or private sector, unorganised sector or universities

Patriarchal habit of blaming women's clothes or behavior for sexual violence

Gender discrimination and gendered social roles both at home and in the workplace

Neoliberal policies that have resulted in greater exploitation and insecurity of women workers

Patriarchal and sexist culture that demeans women – including both orthodox and oppressive traditions as well as commercialization and commoditization of women’s bodies and sexuality

Fights recent rape and murder events in India

Against the social stigma and violence faced by sex workers;

Against Criminalization of homosexuality under Section 377

Source: http://www.andmagazine.com/content/phoenix/12726.ht

“Reports of military sexual assault rise sharply, Pentagon figures show: Pentagon reports 3,553 assault complaints between October and June as Congress considers range of measures to help victims” (Karen McVeigh in New York, theguardian.com), Thursday November 7, 2013 17.13 EST, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/07/military-sexual-assaults-rise-reports-pentagon

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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U.S. cont’ anachronistic breach in relations; other nations watch, wait

A Nation incapable of being true ally is also incapable of securing trust of other nations 
From Spiegel International Online, excerpt, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett

Lawbreakers’ Club

“…The Americans’ only real friends are the members of the coalition of Anglophone countries known as the ‘Five Eyes,’” consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand who maintain “an informal agreement among their intelligence agencies not to spy on each other” and to “closely cooperate and exchange highly sensitive information. …

“… The Five Eyes collaborate on spying operations throughout Europe, drone attacks and the rendition of suspected ‘terrorists’.

These are dirty operations that would immediately be reviewed by an investigative committee if they were conducted by a German intelligence agency.

Not surprisingly, the German government has no inclination to become a member of this dubious club.

 

Espionage against nonmembers

Most Washington observers agree that the operation against German Chancellor Angela Merkel could not have been launched in 2002 without the approval of then-U. S. President George W. Bush. The surveillance campaign began shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when the United States was preparing unprovoked, violent aggression against an ancient sovereign nation: the Republic of Iraq situated in Western Asia encompassing the Mesopotamian alluvial plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert.

There are many indications that a spying campaign began back then ─ a campaign that was not only directed against Chancellor Merkel, but also against leaders of other allied countries. Yet, to this day, U.S. intelligence agencies feel themselves justified in what they have done.

Britain Prime Minister
David Cameron
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel

This is from Spiegel International’s “Codependent: Merkel’s Pragmatic Approach to the NSA Scandal”

Chancellor Merkel, the authors correctly observe, “has every reason to be angry.”

Nothing over the past few years has strained ties between Germany and the United States more than the revelation that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been tapping the cell phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And the chancellor, the article says, does not know what should upset her more:

…the chutzpah of a so-called friend who listens to her phone calls,

…or Americans’ inability to keep it a secret

As she was deceived “by an unscrupulous [U.S.] intelligence agency”, the chancellor “has every reason to be angry”; but she faces a dilemma, difficulty in finding the appropriate response. The article continues:

Angela Merkel does not want to go down in history as a chancellor who allowed herself to be pushed around by her American big brother. On the other hand, she doesn’t want to rock the boat too much.

Her first move following the outrage over her tapped cell phone was to send a delegation of top-ranking German officials to Washington, including foreign policy adviser  Christoph

Heusgen and Günter Heiss, the foreign intelligence coordinator at the Chancellery.

For some time now, many Germans have become uncomfortable, Spiegel says, “with the notion that [Germany is] at the mercy of U.S. intelligence agencies”; many politicians and officials have been considering or reconsidering projects that would bring independence: German “sovereignty in the world of espionage.”

Although the chancellor was initially dismayed by U.S. actions ─ an occurrence that was published widely on news pages throughout the world ─ and the German government considered “a wide range of possible sanctions” against the United States; for now, the chancellor “has come to terms with the fact” that imposing “sanctions on the Americans would be counterproductive for Germany. “Instead,” Spiegel says. “Merkel can console herself with practical thoughts:

German Chancellor
Angela Merkel

She has just won an election victory and she can look forward to at least another four years as chancellor.

U.S. President Barack Obama, on the other hand, is already one year into his last term in office.

[And] In two years, at the latest, the U.S. president will be a lame duck at major international summits whereas Chancellor Merkel will be received as Europe’s most powerful woman.

Sources and notes

“Codependent: Merkel’s Pragmatic Approach to the NSA Scandal: Chancellor Merkel might be furious about the NSA's unscrupulous surveillance activities, but reluctance to anger her partners in Washington prevents her from imposing sanctions. Trade issues aside, Germany itself depends heavily on intelligence gathered by the U.S. agency. By SPIEGEL Staff : BY RALF NEUKIRCH, RENÉ PFISTER, LAURA POITRAS, MARCEL ROSENBACH, JÖRG SCHINDLER, FIDELIUS SCHMID AND HOLGER STARK.  Translated from the German by Paul Cohen, SPIEGEL ONLINE, 11/04/2013 05:59 PM, URL:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nsa-scandal-berlin-restricted-by-close-relationship-with-us-intelligence-a-931503.html

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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“Doesn’t have to be this way” says physician Andrew Coates

From Coates' Government shutdown, disconnect on health care

Editing, excerpt by Carolyn Bennett

Doesn’t have to be this way

Poverty USA

“Too many undignified medical encounters take place simply because

ENRICHED
IN
WASHINGTON

money is involved ─ where it never should be in the first place,” Coates writes. But “the debate in Washington … proves the thesis that there’s a 1 percent and a 99 percent.”

On one side of the debate in Washington, “a right wing believes there should be no government intervention whatsoever in health care; this side believes that some individuals deserve to be sick, even deserve to die – deserve to go without health care because of the choices they may have made in their lives.”

Poverty USA

On the other side of this debate – “among the ‘left’ of the 1 percent – there is an idea that any government intervention could be a good thing, even if it is government intervention to manipulate a profit-driven health insurance marketplace in a way that recruits more customers for private health insurance companies.”

While Washington ideologues are whittling on about where government should be and what should be its role, the fact of the matter is, Coates says,

Poverty USA

the government is already profoundly involved in the health care system, a majority of health spending in the United States of America comes from taxpayers; a majority of spending already comes from public sources.

“So the debate makes little sense” and calls to mind “2009 when

…the right wing was yelling ‘Government takeover!’ and

…the left wing was yelling ‘Public option!’ and

Andrew D. Coates
M.D., F.A.C.P

…neither the right nor the left was talking about something that was included in the president’s Affordable Care Act.

Coates sums up

“I believe this country has great promise as a democracy and that no modern democracy can afford to neglect the health needs of its population,” he writes.

“We have everything it takes for a first-class, outstanding medical system for every person in the United States. We have wonderful nurses. We have excellent and highly trained doctors. We have terrific research and hospitals ready to go.

“What we do not have is public control over the financing. Heath care costs rise, and rise again. Doctors are blamed, technology is blamed, all kinds of excuses are made; but in the final analysis nobody will state the real cause underlying it all.” But underneath it all is this, he says:

Health care is becoming an industry.

Poverty USA

 

It’s becoming a business.

And there are myriad new forces within the system, each trying to extract their tiny profit; and this drives all of us crazy.

It also drives prices and costs ever upward.

“It doesn't  have to be this way,” Coates affirms, “and everybody knows this….” The 99 percent will continue in the short run to have undignified experiences with grave consequences “But in the long run,” he says, “we will together build the kind of health system worthy of us as a people.”

Sources and notes

“The government shutdown and the disconnect on health care” (Andrew D. Coates, M.D., F.A.C.P., WAMC Northeast Public Radio) posted Friday, October 11, 2013, http://www.pnhp.org/news/2013/october/the-government-shutdown-and-the-disconnect-on-health-care

See also “Glitches” By Andrew D. Coates, M.D., F.A.C.P., WAMC Northeast Public Radio, posted on: Friday, October 25, 2013, http://www.pnhp.org/news/2013/october/glitches

Poverty USA

“The ‘glitches’ in purchasing private health insurance arise from the complexity and bureaucracy of our private insurance system ─ with hundreds of insurers, thousands of plans, state-by-state as well as federal regulation and the need to mine new databases in order for the federal government to subsidize premium payments for Americans who have incomes below 400 percent of poverty” Coates writes:

We stand on one side of a chasm.

We stand amid a dysfunctional health system that fails to serve tens of millions of people.

On the other side of the chasm in this wealthy country another world is waiting.

“Signing people up for private insurance incrementally will not get us across that chasm. If we relax our focus from the narrow dime-sized view and look around us we will realize that we cannot leap that chasm in several jumps. We need fundamental change.”

Dr. Andrew Coates practices internal medicine in upstate New York and is president of Physicians for a National Health Program. His commentaries are broadcast online at http://wamc.org/post/coates-political-divisions-harm-health

PNHP

The Physicians for a National Health Program of more than 18,000 members and chapters across the United States is a single-issue organization advocating a universal, comprehensive single-payer national health program.

Advocating for reform of the U.S. health care system since 1987, PNHP has educated physicians and other health professionals about the benefits of a single-payer system ─ including fewer administrative costs and affordable health insurance for the 50 million Americans who have none. PNHP performs ground breaking research on the health crisis and the need for fundamental reform, coordinates speakers and forums, participates in town hall meetings and debates, contributes scholarly articles to peer-reviewed medical journals, and appears regularly on national television and news programs advocating for a single-payer system. Members and physician activists work toward a single-payer national health program in their communities.

PNHP is the only national physician organization in the United States that is dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program.

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Doesn’t get much better than this: Serena Williams ROCKS!

Champion
Serena Williams

Chris Oddo pens a true champion’s “Impossibly Good” season

Editing, end comment by

Carolyn Bennett

With her title in Istanbul (Turkey) ─ winning the WTA Championships for a fourth time ─ SERENA Williams crowns a remarkable season: 57 titles, exceeding Monica Seles’ 53, Lindsay Davenport’s 55 and Virginia Wade’s 55 on the WTA’s all-time title list.

Serena at Istanbul

Serena’s milestones 

(2013 records)

New Prize Money Record: $12,385,572 in prize money finishing season, $4 million above the previous record; only 26 players, according to the WTA, have earned $10.8 million in their whole careers. Williams beat that by $1.5 million in one season!

Grand Slam Title 16th and 17th: Serena ties Roger Federer and is one Slam away from Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.

Career Most Matches Played (record): Williams played more than 80 matches for the first time (year she turned 32) in her career.

Oldest Player to Hold No. 1 Ranking: Serena Williams took over the WTA’s top spot again on February 17, becoming the oldest player in WTA history to do so.

On court at Istanbul, Turkey

Career Best Titles: Sunday in Istanbul, Serena Williams achieved her 11th title; she is the 10th player in Open Era WTA history to have won 10 or more.

Largest Single Prize Money Purse earned in Tennis History:  Williams’ $3.6 million payout at this year’s U.S. Open is the largest in tennis history (ties Rafael Nadal).

Career Best Winning Streak: Williams reached 34 consecutive wins before falling to Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon.

600-Win Plateau reached: Williams won her 600th career match at Wimbledon this year; one of two active players to have won as many; Venus Williams, Serena’s sister, is the other.

Career Best Winning Percentage achieved: Serena Williams finished the 2013 season at 78-4, a winning percentage of .951, which is good for ninth all-time among WTA players.

Seventh on the All-Time Title List achieved

Serena's Serve/return of serve

Serena

Serena Williams is “known for her serve.” By most if not all accounts, she is the best server in history of women’s tennis

Serena Williams’ masterful return of serve in 2013 enabled her to keep potential rivals at bay

Serena Williams, Return, 2008-2013

For the first time since 2008 (the WTA began compiling year-end statistics in 2008), Williams is in the top three of all return categories.

It is the first time that the 17-time Grand Slam champion has been in the top 10 of all four categories (points won against first serve, points won against second serve, break points converted and return games won).

YEAR	1ST SERVE RETURN RANK / %	2ND SERVE RETURN RANK / %	BP % CONVERTED RANK / %	% RETURN GMS WON RANK / %
2013	2nd / 44.7	3rd / 61.6	3rd / 54.1	2nd / 53.9
2012	5th / 42.4	5th / 59.8	NOT TOP 10	6th / 46.8
2011	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10
2010	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10
2009	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10
2008	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10	NOT TOP 10

2013 marks the first time that Williams has won more 50 percent of her return games in a season since the WTA began compiling numbers.

Serena

In 2013, five different players won more than 50 percent of their return games for the first time. Prior to 2012, there are no records of anybody winning more than half of their return games over the course of a season. In 2012, two players (Victoria Azarenka and Sara Errani) won more than half their return games.

Winning 50 percent of return games, since 2008

YEAR/ PLAYER	% RETURN GAMES WON	MATCHES PLAYED
2013 / AZARENKA	54.8	52
2013 / S. WILLIAMS	53.9	82
2013 / ERRANI	50.4	67
2013 / MEUSBURGER	50.2	27
2013 / HALEP	50.1	62
2012 / AZARENKA	52.5	78
2012 / ERRANI	51.2	72

Champion
Billie Jean King

T

Billie Jean King

ennis great Billie Jean King founded the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in 1973. It is the principal organizing body of women’s professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. The WTA’s corporate headquarters is in St. Petersburg, Florida; the European headquarters in London, the Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing.

Billie Jean King

 

It doesn’t get much better than this.

Sources and notes

By Chris Oddo/ Sunday, October 27, 2013: http://www.tennisnow.com/News/Statisfaction-10-Mindblowing-Stats-about-Serena-Wi.aspx

See more at: http://www.tennisnow.com/News/10-Mindblowing-Stats-About-Serena-Williams-Impossi.aspx#sthash.MBrSkxzp.dpuf

“Serena Williams’ Returns: Vastly Improved STATS (satisfaction) 2013” by Chris Oddo / Thursday, October 31, 2013, http://www.tennisnow.com/News/Statisfaction-Serena-Williams-Return-Was-Vastly-Im.aspx

See more at: http://www.tennisnow.com/News/Statisfaction-Serena-Williams-Return-Was-Vastly-Im.aspx#sthash.5eyhuTml.dpuf

ALSO:

http://www.wtachampionships.com/page/WelcomeWTA

http://www.wtachampionships.com/

http://www.wtachampionships.com/articles/20131027/finals-gallery_2267567_3513765?imageNo=19#picture

WTA brief from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Tennis_Association

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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